• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

Army puts unit, organizational moves on hold

Army News Service

Release Date: 12/12/2003

By Joe Burlas

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 12, 2003) -- Effective Jan. 1, the Army will suspend all new unit and organizational moves to permanent locations through May 2005, unless there are compelling operational reasons for such a move, officials said.

However, they said restationing actions approved by headquarters, Department of the Army, before the beginning of the New Year may proceed as scheduled.

The Army intends to avoid unnecessary spending as officials analyze which installations may be affected by Base Realignment and Closure 2005 actions, they said. Office of the Secretary of Defense BRAC 2005 recommendations are due to the BRAC Commission in May 2005.

It doesn't make sense to move people and equipment, as well as build new facilities or renovate older ones, on installations that could be closed in a few years, said Emmett Welch, G-3 Force Management Directorate. Failing to put a stationing restriction in place would be irresponsible because it would make the Army pay twice for unit and organizational moves onto and from installations that end up on the final BRAC list, he said.

Two other reasons for the new restriction, according to the implementing announcement, are to ensure there is no appearance that the Army is "BRAC-proofing" any installation or rendering any as excess before the BRAC process is complete.

Acknowledging that there is some e-mail traffic with supposed lists of installation names already proposed for realignment or closure, Welch warned not to believe everything you read.

"It is impossible to say Base X will or will not be on the final BRAC list when we don't even have the final judging criteria yet," Welch said.

OSD criteria for determining which installations should or should not be recommended for realignment or closure is due to the services in April.

The military has gone through four previous rounds of the BRAC process -- the first in 1988, the last in 1995.

"At a minimum, BRAC 2005 must eliminate excess physical capacity; the operation, sustainment, and recapitalization of which diverts scarce resources from defense capability," said Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld during a Nov. 15 Pentagon press briefing. "However, BRAC 2005 can make an even more profound contribution to transforming the Department by rationalizing our infrastructure with defense strategy. BRAC 2005 should be the means by which we reconfigure our current infrastructure into one in which operational capacity maximizes both warfighting capability and efficiency."

A Department of the Army G-3 memorandum, "Suspension of Army Stationing Actions," dated Dec. 4, announced the move restriction.